Sunday, July 27, 2008

Toyota-shi Fireworks

Last night we went to the Oiden Festival in Toyota-shi (Toyota City).  The main attraction was a fireworks display. I can't even put into words the awesomeness of the fireworks we enjoyed. They were absolutely huge, and each stage of the show seemed like the grand finale. I sat with my mouth agape for almost the entire show. At one point, I had chills. I was completely awe-struck by them. I was a bit disappointed that the show didn't commence with our national anthem, but oh well. I pretended it was the Fourth of July the entire time.

The fireworks were incredible, but I have never seen so many people in one place. Oh, man, it was so packed. 

Below are some pictures of the evening. Some of these pictures were taken by a friend of mine so I downloaded them from her facebook album. Mine didn't come out so great.


This is a small portion of the crowd that was lined up in the streets to watch the fireworks. This same pattern went on for what seemed like forever. 

This shows the train ride home from Toyota City. It takes about an hour by train. It is also extremely hot and humid here. Just imagine the comfort of the situation depicted by this photo.


Travis was quite amused by the fact that no one on the train seemed to have any personal space, except for him. Notice the perimeter around his body. He had a good foot around him the entire time. I, however, had a guy leaning on my left side and a lady leaning on my right side. I opted to prop by purse on one hip and my shopping bag on the other so I didn't have to make direct contact. 

1 comment:

Allison said...

The wide berth around Travis is hilarious... and so true. Roman didn't get the foot of personal space only because there were two Indian guys behind him (one worked for Toyota!). That's the one "good" thing about being a gaijin in Japan...